219 works selected for the 40 candidate questions. Selections approved by Ben Breen, 29 September 2026. Arguments are unverified. Quotations were chosen by machine and are unchecked.
11 of 219 works
c. 370 BCEPlatoPlato,PhaedrusGreekOtherFull text
- Q23Does relying on written records weaken the ability to remember?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q23Does relying on written records weaken the ability to remember?
1645PascalPascal,Avis nécessaire à ceux qui auront curiosité de voir la machine d'arithmétiqueFrenchOtherFull text
- Q24Does using calculating devices weaken the ability to calculate without them?
No. The machine does every arithmetic operation without effort and relieves the mind of the fatigue of reckoning with counters or pen.
- Q24Does using calculating devices weaken the ability to calculate without them?
1791FranklinFranklin,AutobiographyEnglishOtherFull text
- Q22Does organizing daily life by fixed schedules strengthen or weaken self-government?
Strengthens. To reach moral perfection he adopted the virtue of Order and a written scheme assigning each hour of the day, which he credits with his improvement.
- Q22Does organizing daily life by fixed schedules strengthen or weaken self-government?
1854ThoreauThoreau,WaldenEnglishOtherFull text
- Q25Does relying on machinery for ordinary necessities reduce people's ability to provide for themselves?
Yes. Says people who once fed and sheltered themselves directly have become dependent on the tools and property they built, so that 'men have become the tools of their tools.'
- Q38When a person accomplishes something through a machine, should the machine's power count as that person's capability?
No. Thoreau contrasts a mobile, self-providing life with settled dependence and says that people have become the tools of their tools. The passage addresses dependence more directly than attribution of technical capability.
- Q25Does relying on machinery for ordinary necessities reduce people's ability to provide for themselves?
1864BabbageBabbage,Passages from the Life of a PhilosopherEnglishOtherFull text
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
Yes. Every game of skill can be played by an automaton, because a machine that can choose the right move from any position of the pieces can answer whatever its opponent does.
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
1871WhitmanWhitman,Passage to IndiaEnglishOtherFull text
- Q30Should technological invention be understood as carrying out a divine purpose?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q30Should technological invention be understood as carrying out a divine purpose?
1883MüllerMüller,India: What Can It Teach Us?EnglishOtherFull text
- Q23Does relying on written records weaken the ability to remember?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q23Does relying on written records weaken the ability to remember?
1885FerryFerry,Speech to the Chamber of Deputies on colonial policyFrenchOtherFull text
Jules Ferry
Discours sur la politique coloniale
French · Other
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q34Does superiority in industrial or military technology justify one people governing another?
Yes. Ferry asserts that contemporary European nations generously discharge a superior race’s civilizing duty, contrasting this with earlier Spanish enslavement. The excerpt does not state the technological premise or the explicit right-because-duty formula.
- Q34Does superiority in industrial or military technology justify one people governing another?
1899ConferenceConference,Declaration concerning Asphyxiating Gases (Hague Declaration IV, 2)FrenchOtherFull text
Plenipotentiaries of the Hague Peace Conference
French · Other
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q27Should a useful invention be restricted if its harmful consequences cannot be reliably controlled?
Yes. The contracting powers agree to abstain from projectiles whose object is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases.
- Q27Should a useful invention be restricted if its harmful consequences cannot be reliably controlled?
1907AdamsAdams,The Education of Henry AdamsEnglishOtherFull text
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?
Yes. At the 1900 Paris Exposition Adams feels the dynamos as a moral force, as early Christians felt the Cross, and finds himself inclined to pray to one.
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?
1922FordFord,My Life and WorkEnglishOtherFull text
- Q18Does operating machinery develop or diminish a worker's skill and judgment?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q18Does operating machinery develop or diminish a worker's skill and judgment?